Reviews by kingcrowing:

Pours a hazy orange color with a small off white head, no lacing. Nose is very funky and sour. Barnyard and a light frutiness. It's really nice.

For being so easy to find and cheap to buy its very good. However, it isn't quite as sour as I'd like, Cantillon and 3F have a much more sour funk and this is just lacking that. The Mouthfeel is very nice and full though, creamy and rich. The finish is dry and barnyardy. Quite approachable for a new sour drinker.

Taste: Light to moderate body, tartness is solid but modest as it has mellowed out over the years. Incredibly smooth and crisp. Fruity after the initial wake of tartness. Dry malt character is clean under tartness, musty flavours are more towards the end with hints of dry chalky yeast.

Notes: Simple but has depth, flavourful but not boisterous. This brew shows little aging flaws at all and perhaps could see another decade or two without turning as long as the cork holds up. I&#8217;ll be seeking more bottles ASAP. This would be a good brew to break a newbie to the world of lambics.

i really liked this one from lindemans, much better than some of their fruited stuff, and a much lighter take on they style than is available from others. its crystal clear after i pour from the capped and corked green glass bottle. radiantly clear really, yeast cake remains on the bottom of the bottle. head is fizzy and white but settles quickly, and there is a real champagne sort of look to it. the nose is only a bit sour, its still definitely blended lambic, no mistake about that, but it hass less of the lactic hotness of others, instead having a light wheat malt flavor and some yeast character other than sourness. its meadowy, springy, floral and very delicate. not a lugging weighty gueuze, but one to really drink up, like a glass of spring white wine, it seems to be the perfect compliment to a chickpea curry, but i can see it working in about a million food contexts. this is a good beer to introduce folks to the style with too, its less caustically acidic but equally refined as the others. i like it quite a bit, and am more excited to crack the bottle of faro lambic in the fridge now too!

Bottle purchased from Discount Liquor for $7.50 quite some time ago (at least 18 months) and cellared although the bottle itself looks much older than that. Ill have to search it for a date later. Served in a large snifter.

Aroma: Potent and complex. Loads of apple and strawberry. Sweet lambic notes similar to the Lindemans fruit beers but tons of funk as well. Sour with lots of acidic lemon.

Taste: Fantastic. As foreshadowed by the aroma, this beer has a tremendous amount of sweet/tart fruit flavor, especially apple, and plenty of barnyard funky/citric/rotten hay and lemons. Some pale malt is found too.

Mouthfeel: The funk is much more controlled and purposeful in this gueuze as compared to others Ive tried. Its less sour than many but not less interesting. The combination of the tartness from the fruity yeast and the funk from the bacteria is great. The body remains crisp, fairly clean, and very drinkable too.

"1998" vintage
Rose-yellow liquid with a whale-blubber-white, energetic head that hisses and spits its way quickly to a surface-hugging pattern of chunky islands. The smell is intense and resembles loads of pressed apples, burning paper, peppermint, brushed steel, and over-ripe sourdough starter. Sour as all get out. An apple with the sugar removed. Barf flavors throughout. Like barfed up apple pulp and crushed apple seeds. Lime, blood, and sour cherries churn on the palate leaving a path of dry destruction and me, dependantly, begging for more. An awesome hell-beer. From the honey-pine forests of Utopia.

Retasted 10-19. Upgraded from 4.8 to 5. Possibly the best food beverage in the world...
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Another sample on 9/13/2003 bottled in 2002. This time no cork.
Is this tamer than the 1998? Is my palate inured to the style? Does it need to age?
Wasted red apples and white paper on the nose but less than before. Simpler, more dilute, less hiss... very clean and refreshing, but hardly pushing the envelope that the 1994 and 1998 did:
4.5, 4.5, 4.5, 4.0, 4.5
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Nov. 2003...Tasted the 2002 next to a 1994 (Thanks Surly!)
My faith in the 2002 was restored. It's just too young if you prefer what age can do to this beer - as I do. Witness the 1994: It was like drinking molten lemons that had been painstakingly spiced with thousands of Sumatran botanicals. Certainly a 5, 5, 5, 5, 5!

A crumbled cork led to bits and pieces in the glass, otherwise hazy gold with a tall, white dense head. Plenty of retention and lacing. Lemon-spritzed apples, cut grass, and a trace of biscuit crumbs in the nose. Light bodied with a soft mouthfeel. Tonic-like and tart on the palate. Minerallic and tannic with lemon pith and apple skins. Finishes dry and fairly sharp.

A very nice Gueuze. The sourness is moderate compared to some, and an aged bottle is even more mellow.

Pours a medium orange with a light golded tint with a grear fluffy head that just leaves incredable lacing,aroma is ctrius and some soapy aromas in there as well.Taste a little subdued for the flavor (wich is fine with me)still rather sour and dry some real ripe green apple flavors in there,did I pick up some nutiness in there ass well?Although not a huge fan of the style this beer deserves good marks well made and not overpowering.

Pours a dense, golden-yellow color with copper tones kind of spread around the edges a bit. It's cloudy and murky, especially throughout the middle, with a huge and fluffy, slightly off-white head. Volatile and quick to expand, yet also pretty quick to settle into a fine skin. Not much lacing left behind.

The aroma is dense, somewhat heavy, and definitely "gueuze-like" - whooda thunk it, right? Chalk, mild sweet malt, barnyard funk, wet wood, tart fruit (apple skins, pear), mild sulfur and slight vegetation. Lots going on here, and you can definitely tell from the aroma that this one will be more funky than tart. As it warms up, the smells develop into deeper and more robust version of their former selves. Lots more funk from the yeast and tartness from the fruit.

First sip begins with an immediate, initial tart spike and an intense fruitiness; apples, pears, light banana, and maybe even some cherries. Not a moment later, the tartness is challenged and eventually replaced by an incoming funk that hits with a sharp bite midway through. Wet wood, damp cellar, lots of cork, funky yeast, musky and faintly sulfuric notes.

Lots of earthy and fruity esters scatter in the background. The finish leaves you with a lingering sweetness, a dying tartness, and a strong funkiness. Dry as can be - this will scrape the enamel off your teeth with it's unabashed dryness. Thin-medium body, carbonated out the wazoo.

Nothing world-class here, but it's tough when your competition includes breweries like Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen. Nevertheless, this is still decent for a "shelf gueuze", especially considering the fact that it can be purchased almost anywhere in the United States. Relatively cheap for the style, too.

This was my second smell-driven beer I tasted this week (the first being Westvleteren Blonde).

Smell: sulphur, minerals and hot springs. A little bit of apple in the smell, but also an acrid smell. I didn't pick up on the manure smell that some posters said they smell (that was more of the Westy Blonde). The smell is somewhere between unique, comforting and off-putting, if possible. Its like that SNL skit about smelling sour milk and how you have to go back for a second whiff.

Taste: less complex than the odour. It has a good gueuze taste without any of the sweetness I was afraid of finding (and that tends to be in inferior gueuzes). It was more of an apple taste than a sour lemony taste. Decent carbonation. Wish it had a fuller mouth feel to it. Wasn't as refreshing as I'd expect and palate-wise, was on the emptier/lighter side. Not a bad beer, but slightly disappointing.

Appearance: like a nice cider.

Overall, its a decent beer but slightly disappointing. Definitely a good entrance beer for those interested in lambics or gueuze, but not worth the $6/bottle that it costs in Ontario. I had 2 bottles and am not running out to buy more. Will age the 2nd bottle to see if any of the funky smell dissipates.

Look (3.5/5) - the look was a bit disappointing, really. The color is a rich gold. It's much too cloudy for the style, a little less than a witbier actually. The head rose quickly and was fairly large, but fell too fast and without any lacing.

Smell (4.5/5) - The smell was ideal. Some sourness, of a sharp sour-grape, berry, or crab-apple sort. The brunky-brett aroma (goat, hay) was in there as, but more gentle and balanced. Slight vanilla in the nose. A little bit reminiscent of sour sugar candy.

Flavor (5/5) - the flavor is excellent and well-balanced. A touch more malt than on the nose with a hint of sweetness to it (overall it is tart wheat and some biscuit). Medium-light sourness is certainly present, but not overpowering. It has the same fruity tones to it and the brett is a little less intense on the tongue than on the nose. The finish has a nice lasting tang.

Feel (4.5/5) - Very good. Light body and very high carbonation. Any more body and the sharp flavors wouldn't play all that well. Fizz compliments the long, sour finish.

Drink (4.5/5) - This was a great brew. Both very drinkable ad intensely flavorful. The brew would have been perfect, if not for the problems with its looks.

T-M- Taste is a great Gueuze sour note of sour apples and white grapes followed by tart yeasty malts. Puckering tart is exactly what I was looking for in this beer and i found it. Mouthfeel is mouth watering tartness leaving a refresh tongue ready for more.

D- I could put down pint after pint of this good brew. Haven't found nearby but ill try.

No dating seen on the bottle- maybe there was something on the cork when the bartender had it? I was watching the guitarist and vaguely remember this being corked and capped...
Poured out from the bottle to a Chimay glass a clear and golden with just a bit of a thick and cloudy head that swirled across beautifully. Wonderfully dark wine cellary scents, very vineous with tons of fresh pipe tobacco scents. Difficult for me to describe the body on this one... maybe medium... Give it a swirl and you can get some carb, but not too much, not obnoxious amounts, there is good feel to it, it has a good fit. Wow, this is good stuff! This is what I want when I order a gueuze!! You feel the tartness coming at you before it hits your tongue! Yum! Lemon juice and tart granny smith apples, deeply wonderfully vineous and semi-sour. This is just amazingly good and goes down so easily. I was so happy to see this one in the Dawson's fridge! Happiness!